The Pistons vs. The Suns

The 15-22 #Pistons are back from their three game road trip to take on the 21-14 Phoenix Suns at The Palace of Auburn Hills Saturday night. The Pistons, who went 1-1 against the Suns last season, have lost seven of their last nine games against Phoenix.

The good: The Pistons finally snapped their longest losing streak of the season with solid games from all of their starters as well as Bynum and Singler off the bench. Detroit have won the last two games at home against the Suns.The bad: This isn’t a familiar Suns team that has struggled the past few seasons. Phoenix is somewhat of a surprise playing great basketball, despite a lineup that isn’t riddled with household names. It’s a little disappointing as a Pistons fan to see the success of the Suns considering how much talent is on this Detroit team.The unknown: Can the Pistons recreate the energy and solid play they displayed against the Sixers in the second half of their win Friday night? Will Goran Dragic who is averaging 23.2 points on 50.0 percent shooting, including 11 of 22 from beyond the arc, over the past five games sustain he great play in Detroit?Injuries: Rodney Stuckey is not on the injury list, but played just three minutes in Friday night’s win against the Sixers.
Suns: Eric Bledsoe, the Suns second leading scores and Emeka Okafor are both out.

Fact: Josh Smith became only the third player in NBA history (Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Hakeem Olajuwon) to post at least 22 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, five blocks and four steals in a game when he posted those numbers at Philadelphia (1/10).Fact: The Pistons haven’t won a regular-season series against the Suns since the 2007-08 season.

Tip off is at 7:30 pm and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Detroit . If you can’t catch the game on TV, catch it on the radio over at 97.1 The Ticket.

Two games in a row with the good Josh Smith. we have seen mostly the bad Josh Smith this season. if Josh plays good we can win. if he plays bad we lose. not real happy being on the Josh Smith rollercoaster. when he’s bad he’s really bad. and when he’s good he looks like an all star. we will see a trade of moose if Josh can string together a dozen good games. but if bad Josh shows up for the rest of the year we will see Joe d fired.

Pistons have 8 games left in January. If they bring their “A” game they should be able to win at least 7 ( Lose to Clippers). If they are still below 500 after January, I have low hope for this season.